"An Extraordinary Extraterrestrial Tale!"
REEF -- Interstellar Bad Boy or Lonely Lost Boy? I love romances where the author deviates from the
reader's
usual expectations in stories such as Susan Grant's "The
Star Princess" and her latest offering, "How to Lose an
Extraterrestrial in 10 Days" the third book in her
Otherworldly Men sf romance series. Miss Grant is known
for
her intelligent, high powered, kick ass heroines and her
sexy, honorable and well, heroic heroes. Grant's latest hero is a Robotically Engineered Enemy
Fighter, REEF-01A the best bio-computer enhanced assassin
the galaxy has to offer who had been sent to annihilate
Cavin Far Star who has just saved the Earth from
acquisition by the technologically advanced Coalition
forces. Cavin who was featured in book one of this
series "Your Planet or Mine?" has been hailed as a hero
while REEF is essentially public enemy number one. And if
that is not bad enough he's failed at the most important
mission of his career and, if his failing bio-systems are
any indication, is certain the Coalition powers-that-be
have ordered his self-destruction. Either way he's a dead
man. How can anyone be expected to fall in love with the
REEF, and most especially Evie Jasper Holloway whose
sanctuary had been violated when the REEF had invaded her
home in search of Far Star? As REEF's computer systems fail, the emotions the machines
had suppressed since childhood had begun to emerge,
emptiness, loneliness, remorse, and resentment for those
who enslaved him and even the parents who had given him
away, or so he believed. Nothing that had been done to
stimulate his memory had helped him to figure out who he
was or where he'd come from. (The reader finds this out in
the preface but I won't spoil the discovery here.) Evie is the black sheep of the high powered Jasper clan,
the first family of California. While her sister Senator
Jana Jasper and her lover Cavin are still holed up in Area
51 after saving the world and her brother Jared is
masquerading as Earth's Prince and wedding the goddess of
the Coalition, Queen Keira, Evie the rebellious college
drop-out and divorced mother of two is content to avoid
the
lime light supplying domestic support to the family when
needed. That is until her sister Jana asked her to do the
impossible. No way is she providing a safe house for an
interstellar assassin. Unfortunately Evie has never quite
learned how to say no to her family, even when she means it.
When she sarcastically tells Jana the REEF would never
last
10 days, Jana takes it as a yes. Evie loves to cook and donates gourmet treats for family
events and related functions. While at the Jasper family
ranch to mourn Grandpa Jake, Evie is introduced to a child
labor activist. Stopping the worldwide slavery of children
is a cause Evie can wrap herself around and she agrees to
provide her chocolate covered berries to an upcoming rally.
REEF arrives at Evie's house just as her van is
pulling out of the driveway and he decides to follow her.
Evie ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time and
REEF,
the career killer, saves her life. Now it's her turn to
protect him. There's a startling innocence about REEF that touches
Evie's heart and it doesn't hurt that he's drop dead
gorgeous either. REEF, a man starved of emotion for most
of
his life, thrives in the environment Evie has created for
her family and the love she bestows on everyone she cares
for including him. She is determined to help him
rediscover
his identity even knowing that it probably means she will
eventually lose him. With the both governments looking for him and his
supernatural strength dwindling, REEF is even more
determined to keep this extraordinary woman and her
children out of harms way no matter what. If that isn't love what is? The readers know Ms. Grant as an Air Force Academy
graduate, military instructor, commercial pilot, and a
best
selling author but she's also a mom and a supporter of
causes and I think in Evie Holloway she's shown us what a
truly valuable role that can be. She is the kind of
heroine
we all have the ability to be, the every day heroine whose
name will never make the news but who makes a difference
all the same.
REEF is the kind of hero that I simply adore with the perfect
mixture of strength and vulnerability that makes him truly
human in spite of everything he's been through. He gives
new meaning to the term "reformed rake" - yum. "How to Lose an Extraterrestrial in 10 Days" is a truly
remarkable love story that also brings the readers'
attention to real and serious circumstance, the worldwide
problem of child slavery. I highly recommend this tale for
its message as well as its brilliant characterization.
Reviewed by Leslie Tramposch
Posted June 13, 2007
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